An American company selling pretzel snacks to the Bavarians? Let’s look at these Pretzel Crisps!
When I saw these Pretzel Crisps in a local German supermarket I was a bit confused… Where to begin?
These are American. I recognised the design of the packet from pictures I’ve seen on Junk Food Guy and Impulsive Buy only… there’s a difference. In America these carry “Snack Factory” branding. Here in Germany they’re marketed as Snyder’s of Hanover. I’ve seen their flavoured pretzel pieces for sale in quite a few places, so that branding change make some sense. But then… why wouldn’t these also be marketed as Snyder’s in America?
The language of the packet is American English. Flip it over and the ingredients list comes in multiple languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian. They’re “Made In The USA”.
Look further down and you get: “Cracker and bag designs © 2004-2014. All rights reserved. Snack Factory®, Pretzel Crisps®, Rethink Your Pretzel!® and cracker designs are trademarks of Princeton Vanguard LLC.” – Did someone forget to tell them we’re in 2017? And that they haven’t branded these as Snack Factory, but Snyders?
Let’s eat.
On opening the packet there’s a somewhat disturbing aroma that my brain wants to categorise as ‘varnish fumes’. It smells seedy and a little bit odd. Tipping them out onto the table, I didn’t expect them to look so unnatural! They actually look like they’ve been varnished – it’s not just the way I’ve taken this photo. They’re definitely an orangey-brown-varnish colour.
Eating them? They’re very very thin and crisp. Like slices of a crisply baked flatbread. I don’t think they taste like a lye based breze and I don’t see much in common with a pretzel either. Other than the shape… Unless you happen to lay them out like I did and think they sorta resemble Space Invaders. Do you see the skull faces in there too?
There’s a light saltyness to these, along with a good dose of sesame and poppy seed. It’s a nice flavour mixture but the thing you’re gonna notice right away is the sweetness. It’s not even really a background flavour – they’re just sweet. Cane sugar hits the ingredients list at number 2, just behind wheat flour. Sucrose turns up at number 5 too. This must be where the coating is getting its sheen from. Sweet sesame is the last, lingering flavour on my tongue.
It’s not a bad snack but it’s not a pretzel flavour either, certainly not by Bavarian standards. They’re also a little too sweet, which isn’t what I personally want from a savoury snack. As they’ve been available in America for a while though, they clearly have their fans and they might be right up your street if you like things sweet and lightly savoury.
These crisps are a bit addictive though… I keep putting my hand in the bag and munching as I’m writing this and I’m not even sure that I like them. But I’m eating them… Would I buy them again? No. Will I finish this bag off in the next couple of minutes? Yes. Make of that what you will.
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